Syrian Death Toll Reaches 60,000, Says UN Rights Agency

Rebel fighters inspect the debris in a street in the Bustan al-Basha district in the northern city of Aleppo on Jan. 1, 2013. Phohographer: AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- At least 60,000 people have been
killed in Syria since protests against President Bashar al-Assad
began nearly two years ago, the United Nations said in its first
detailed analysis of deaths.

“The number of casualties is much higher than we expected,
and is truly shocking,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Navi Pillay said in a statement e-mailed from Geneva today.
“Collectively, we have fiddled at the edges while Syria
burns.”

The casualty toll released by the UN integrates six
databases of killings between March 2011 and November 2012
maintained by Syrian human rights monitors and one built by the
government. Only reports bearing full names and the date and
location of each death were used, according to the UN. The seven
databases identified 59,648 unique killings and Pillay said it’s
now reasonable to assume more than 60,000 have died.

The conflict began with peaceful protests 22 months ago and
then spiralled toward what UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi this
week warned may “turn into hell.” The fighting has affected
the lives of 3.3 million Syrians and caused damage totaling 2
trillion Syrian pounds ($28 billion), Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi said on state television on Dec. 31.

The analysis shows a rise in the average number of
documented deaths to 5,000 a month since July 2012, from around
1,000 a month previously.

Homs Deaths

The greatest number of reported killings was in Homs where
12,560 deaths were recorded, followed by 10,862 in rural
Damascus, 7,686 in Idlib and 6,188 in Aleppo, according to the
report. The analysis, by the non-profit technology company
Benetech for the UN, was not able to differentiate clearly
between combatants and non-combatants.

The report will be used to assist future war crimes
investigations, the UN said, and will assist “to enhance
accountability and provide justice and reparations to victims’
families.”

At least 20 people died today when warplanes struck a gas
station in the Damascus suburb of Mleeha, Omar Hamza, an
opposition spokesman told Al Arabiya television. The attack
killed 50 and wounded dozens more, according to the opposition
Local Coordination Committees in an e-mailed statement. The
number of dead is likely to rise as rescuers continue to pull
human remains from the rubble, the LCC said.

“The situation is bad and it’s getting worse,” Brahimi
said in Cairo on Dec. 30. “I can’t see anything other than
these two paths: Either there will be a political solution that
will meet the ambitions and legitimate rights of the Syrian
people, or Syria will turn into hell.”